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Provence rewards the unhurried. Spend a morning in the hilltop villages of the Luberon: Gordes, Ménerbes and the half-ruined Oppède-le-Vieux, with Sénanque Abbey sitting in its valley below. Then swap stone for sea on a boat trip from Cassis through the Calanques, where white limestone cliffs drop into water the colour of bottle glass. Wine lovers can taste their way round Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas (your driver-guide takes the wheel) or sip rosé at a family domaine, and keen cooks can find out what a fistful of Provençal herbs does to a summer tomato. For culture, you have Van Gogh's Arles, the Roman aqueduct at Pont du Gard, the papal palace in Avignon and Marseille's old Le Panier quarter. The Camargue adds white horses, black bulls and flamingos in shrimp-pink. If it's the lavender of Valensole you're after, plan carefully: the fields are purple from roughly late June to mid-July, and after that they're just stubble. For something rarer, we'd book a private visit to a family chandelier workshop or a day canyoning in the Gorges du Verdon. Bring an appetite. And comfortable shoes.
This is a working wine estate where famous architects and artists are invited to leave a piece of work on the grounds. The collection keeps changing, so you walk between pavilions and sculptures set in the vines, with a tasting at the end. A vineyard that doubles as an open-air gallery.
King Rene made Aix his Provencal capital in the 15th century, and it has had a reputation as France's cleverest city ever since. Cézanne and Zola both grew up here. You get elegant townhouses, fountains on almost every square and a buzzy café scene that carries on well into the evening.
Roussillon is a Luberon village on a hilltop of cliffs coloured in shades from saffron-yellow to deep rust-red. A guide takes you on a two-hour hike through that landscape. Wear shoes you don't mind getting dusty, because the ochre dust sticks to everything.
The Romans built this three-tiered aqueduct to carry water to Nemausus, the city now called Nîmes. They did it without mortar. It's one of the best-preserved Roman aqueducts anywhere and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its honey-coloured stone spanning the green Gardon river. Two thousand years on, it still looks like a feat of engineering.
The ruins of a 14th-century castle, once the popes' summer retreat, look down on this village and its vineyards. The fields are covered in the large round stones the region is known for. You'll taste at a local estate, such as Domaine de la Janasse, Domaine de la Barroche, Château de Vaudieu or Château de Beaucastel. Big, sun-warmed reds are the main draw.
In the 14th century the popes moved to Avignon, and for a while it was the centre of the Christian world. You can still see that in the city. The Palais des Papes is a huge Gothic fortress. The Pont Saint-Bénézet runs halfway across the Rhône and then just stops. Old churches fill the streets around them. It feels like history was built on a grand scale here.
Namibrand, Namibia
